Last week, the Walter Reade cinema at NYC's Lincoln Center hosted a retrospective of features directed by Tod Browning. To advertise the series a promotional video was created; it consists of brief snippets from his most famous and characteristic movies. Based on the promo, you'd think his career consisted entirely of dark, bizarre tales of the macabre. (The series itself was called "Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning.") But Dollar Down, which I caught the other night, begs to differ. It's a prosaic tale of a family struggling with financial difficulties. There are no vampires in the cast, or circus freaks, or eccentric Limehouse crooks. I've seen most of Browning's surviving films, and this one is the weakest, and easily the most bland.
Henry B. Walthal is businessman Alec Craig, head of his household. He earns good money, but his wife (Mayme Kelso) and daughter (Ruth Roland) are spendthrifts. They buy everything on credit, convinced they'll always be able to keep up with monthly payments thanks to father's income. Mrs. Craig in particular is very keen on being accepted 'in society,' and throws a lavish dinner party which stretches the family budget severely. Ruth meanwhile is involved with a handsome young inventor who has designed a new, experimental aircraft. But she is also romanced by one of her father's business rivals, a man named Steele, who -- unbeknownst to Ruth -- is taking advantage of her to get information about her father's plans, which would be useful to a competing firm.
Well, the plot gets convoluted. There is much talk of finance, budgeting, buying goods on credit, etc. Ruth unwisely pawns a ring, one that isn't fully paid for, and this proves to be a serious mistake. But eventually, when the Craig family is on the brink of ruin, Ruth is able to save the day by tricking Steele into going up with her in the experimental aircraft (it's been established that Ruth herself can pilot a plane), which causes him to miss an important deadline on a business deal, a deal that would have resulted in Mr. Craig losing his job in disgrace. All ends happily for the Craig family.
That's the gist of it. Where posterity is concerned, a big problem for viewers today is that the final reel of Dollar Down is missing. The surviving footage ends just as Ruth arrives at the airport with Steele. The climactic flight in the experimental aircraft can only be imagined. Now that certainly isn't Tod Browning's fault, but the problem is, the build-up to that finale (i.e. The bulk of the movie) is dull as dishwater. All the characters are two-dimensional, there's little humor or color, and the theme of thrift is pounded so heavily, it becomes wearisome. It's hard to escape the feeling we're being lectured about frugality. If you think you might ENJOY that, you might enjoy this film.
There's one sequence which is oddly funny. It's set at a local elementary school, where the theme of 'Living within Your Means' is taught to the children. They actually have an all-school Thrift Day, complete with parade and elaborate floats illustrating the concept. This reminded me of those latter-day MGM Our Gang shorts, where Janet, Mickey, Froggy & the kids would enact sketches underscoring the importance of obeying authority, or looking both ways before you cross the street. It's kind of weird, and also the closest this film gets to being (mildly) entertaining. But when it comes to Browning's personal brand of weirdness I think most of us prefer The Devil-Doll, or Freaks. Even with the missing footage, Dollar Down feels like a prolonged sermon.
